Williamson Robert Winfield Cobb

Williamson Robert Winfield Cobb (8 June 1807-1 November 1864) was a member of the US House of Representatives (D-AL 6) from 1847 to 1861, succeeding Reuben Chapman.

Biography
Williamson Robert Winfield Cobb was born in Rhea County, Tennessee in 1807, and his family moved to Bellefonte, Jackson County, Alabama in 1809. He worked as a clock peddler annd merchant before being elected to the State House in 1844, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 1847 to 1861. He controlled the vote of the plain folk from the hill country, fighting against the affluent and better-educated people of Huntsville. However, he was a strong unionist and an ardent opponent of secession, and he reluctantly withdrew from the US Congress after Alabama's secession in 1861. He was elected to the Confederate Congress in 1863 amid growing anti-war sentiment, but he was expelled for his Unionist sentiments. He accidentally shot himself while putting up a fence at his plantation in 1864.